


It's a Texas Thing

by Jamjar88



Category: Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:27:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26318662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jamjar88/pseuds/Jamjar88
Summary: A request I got on Tumblr :)Prompt from the drabble challenge by Katie-girl-2
Relationships: Chris Cornell/Andrew Wood
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	It's a Texas Thing

At first I thought it was kinda lame, thought he’d be embarrassed about it. He used to leave these notebooks lying around the apartment, loose leaves full of scribbled tables with football team names, as messy and chaotic as everything else he produced. He had a shitty tv in his bedroom, just sitting on the carpet, this grey boxy console plugged in with trailing leads. The beep-boop of the music could drive you crazy some nights when he passed out still in the middle of the game. 

When he first moved in, I didn’t really know him at all. I’d asked Stone to room first, not that he was in any hurry to leave the family mansion - and Andy was fresh out of rehab so I didn’t know how that was gonna work. I guess the point is that I’ll try anything. I had an open mind about it. The first day he moved in, I could tell he thought I was Dad. No one ever saw me that way before. It felt like a lot - but that kid needed someone. I’d bring him home extra from the restaurant, come open his drapes when he slept too long and it was already afternoon, make him some coffee. I think he liked that. I didn’t have to do a lot to earn his trust. So I guess he started leaving these weird notebooks around, and then one evening he yelled for me and I went in, I was fucking tired from a double shift, I needed to wash my hair really bad, and he was sitting on the floor by that little grey box, smiling at me like a little kid, and he said - 

“Wanna play?”

He was a nerd. At heart, that’s what it was. I feel like there were two Andys. The rock star and the nerd. They were like two different people, and they never crossed paths. But actually, the nerd was ours, we all fucking loved that guy. The way he’d pore over these charts of teams, soon he had his whole band involved. You know how hard those guys tried to be cool? And there they were planning plays for the Denver Broncos or whatever the fuck, arguing about whose turn it was. I heard they played that game up and down the West Coast in a van full of gear. I heard Gilmore and Stone nearly came to actual blows over that fucking game. 

One night, I was practising some riffs, messing with my four track, and I was worrying about the rent that day, I was wound tight. Then I hear this singing from Andy’s room-

 _“It’s a Texas thing,_ y’all wouldn’t understand!”

I got up, threw my guitar on my bed, fucking pissed, went to his room to chew him out - and saw Andy lying on the floor in front of the tv, victorious in his Dallas Cowboys shirt with his arms and legs stretched out like a little kid, his blond hair spread out on the floor like a goddamn halo, laughing his ass off. Stone was there, sitting there on the floor next to him just creased up, I never saw him like that before. It was pure. I can still see them there, I swear to God. Weird what you remember.

“Cornell!! You’re up, dude!”

“Uhh- no, Andy, I got shit to do and-“

“I said you’re up Cornell, get your ass over here!”

And that was how I lost a night of my life to Nintendo Football.


End file.
